Friday, November 09, 2012

While I'm Away...

...I don't want you to be bored, or lack for humor so I thought I would leave you with this, remarks from a denizen of Mr. Proyect's list and the other of "recommended readings for beginners" interested in Marx's work:

 Re: Immanent Critique
From: Angelus Novus 
Capital is pretty much a self-contained work, but other than that, Marx's work is basically a fragmentary hodge-podge, much of it topical to contemporary political and philosophical disputes of Marx's time. To say that people should just dive into the enormous fragmentary body of Marx's writings without any context is to promote confusion rather than understanding.

Dingbat Trotskyist sects are always forcing texts like the 18th Brumaire or The German Ideology onto people who have no idea who Louis Napoleon or Bruno Bauer are. If decontextualized reception of holy writ is your idea of Marxist education, have fun.

P.S. I notice you don't offer a comment function on your blog. Nice way to immunize yourself against critique.


And of course, in the eternal struggle to have the last word, something which I intend to achieve even beyond the grave,  I responded thusly:


Dance around the issue any way you want, but the bottom line is to understand Marx you have to read Marx. You don’t need to read somebody else’s reading of Marx. 
 
Your remarks might have some validity if you bothered to offer even 1 volume of the “hodge-podge”—which BTW is complete bullshit, an attempt at justifying not reading Marx— even something as accessible as the EPM, or A Contribution to the Critique.... But no, you know better, and that it’s better to read what others think Marx meant, because that’s so much easier. And besides, it saves time.
 
PS. I don’t give a fuck about what you think about a comments function. Anybody wants to discuss anything with me, they know how to contact me... anybody wants a chat room... they’re welcome to Proyect’s list and Proyect’s blog. 
 
Well, I hope that provides you with a bit of comic relief.